She qualified for the finals in both the vault and the floor exercise. Her performance in the vault final left her devastated.
Carey tripped during her run-up to her first vault and was forced to simplify the skill she had planned to do. Her low score on that vault ruined her chances for a medal. She left the competition in tears.
“Yesterday was really tough for me,” Carey said on Monday, calling it “a kind of a blur.” She said her U.S. teammates, especially Simone Biles, gave her a pep talk once she returned to the team’s hotel. But for the most part, she wanted to be alone, so she grabbed some food and went to her room to eat by herself.
On Monday morning, her father sat her down to discuss the situation. He told her, “Yesterday was one of the worst days of your life, but today can be one of the best days of your life.” Turns out that he was right.
Jade Carey came into the floor exercise final with a clear head and a will to do her best.
“For tonight, I just had to let that go,” she said.
In her last performance in Tokyo, Carey easily knocked out double flips with double twists and ended her routine with a full twisting double back flip.
She called it “the best floor routine I’ve ever done in my life.”